THE Deep Blues Club will introduce Chicago bluesman James Wheeler to York on Tuesday night at the Post Office Club, Marygate.

Club co-promoter Tony Clarke says: "Blind Mississippi Morris went down a storm as usual at last month's gig, even though it was the fifth time he had played for us! Now we welcome to our stage for the first time one of the most experienced and respected blues guitar players from Chicago."

Wheeler, who was born in Albany, Georgia, on August 28 1937, did not follow the usual path of listening to the blues and picking up a guitar as a youngster. Instead his favourite music in his youth was the big-band sound predominant at the time: the music of Joe Stafford, Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington.

"I like to tell people I came in at the college level and down to the starters' level. That was the sound that I had to listen to," says Wheeler. "Louis Jordan was my main man. He was my idol for a long time."

Wheeler never took up an instrument until he moved to Chicago to join his older brother, the harmonica player Golden Wheeler. He started to play an old Harmony acoustic guitar and drew further inspiration from watching Howlin' Wolf and Freddie King in the clubs. By the early 1960s, he was jamming regularly on the West Side.

Latterly, he has pursued a solo career, releasing Ready in 1998 and Can't Take It in 2000, two albums that combine a relaxed sound with the raw feel of blues recordings of the 1950s and 1960s.

For Tuesday's appearance, Wheeler will be backed by Big Blue House, a British trio whose guitarist, 22-year-old James Harrison, is tipped for big things.

Doors open at 8pm, and admission is £9 or £8 for concessions and CIU members.

Updated: 08:44 Friday, April 16, 2004